Firms to create nearly 500 jobs in Galway, Shannon and Dublin

Almost 500 new technology-related jobs are to be created by companies in Galway, Athlone, Shannon and Dublin.

Swedish software provider Ericsson and German consulting group SAP are set to create up to 380 new jobs across their various facilities in Galway, Athlone and Dublin.

Ericsson, the fifth-largest software company in the world, will bring its Irish workforce up to 1,400 with the recruitment of 120 people for its operations in Dublin and Athlone. The jobs being created are highly-skilled roles encompassing software developers, solution architects, consultants and programme managers. A number of these roles are in Ericsson's recently acquired TV business unit, Mediaroom. A number of the roles will go to graduates of the Dublin Institute of Technology MSc in Applied Software Technology and the Athlone Institute of Technology MSc in Applied Software Engineering. Both MSc programmes are Ericsson sponsored.

"We are looking for highly-skilled people who want to work in a dynamic and creative environment," Traoloch Collins, Ericsson's managing director in Ireland said, adding that, "Ireland is a major research and development hub for Ericsson globally. We have a track record of ingenuity, with 87 patents developed in Ireland over the past five years."

Meanwhile at its Business Objects Software 's Development centre in Citywest, Dublin, SAP is to create 60 highly skilled roles in predictive analytics, as well as 200 new technology support roles across its business suite and cloud support teams.

SAP operations in Ireland provide solutions for reporting and analytics, and the new predictive analytics drive will focus on enabling enterprises to better consume Big Data, and also to utilise powerful new technologies to forecast and predict better outcomes for businesses.

Liam Ryan, managing director, SAP operations in Ireland said: " The technology sector is driving much of the recovery in the economy and is providing the types of jobs and careers that we need to create to compete in an increasingly international and digital world. To truly take advantage of these exciting and emerging job opportunities, we cannot become complacent. I would urge all stakeholders in Ireland's education and employment sectors to work together to ensure we continue to have a healthy pipeline of talent and skillsets that meet the demands of our businesses."

Elsewhere, a third jobs announcement sees another 100 roles created in the IT field. Wipro, a global tech, consulting and outsourcing company which provides services to banks and finance companies in Ireland and the UK, is to increase its workforce in Shannon by 50 per cent over the next year.